Estonian Parliamentary Elections 2023

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 250 Estonian political advertisers during the 2023 Parliamentary Elections to better understand how campaigns use different targeting methods made available by Meta. To do this, we used data from the Meta Ad Library, using the new ‘Audience’ data which gives some detail on how pages target their ads.

To better understand the regional election, we kept only advertisers who:

  1. Advertised in the last 7 days (February 26th - March 4th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (February 3rd - March 4th 2023)

Note: Meta only provides 7, 30 and 90 days windows for the targeting data in their Ad Library. Meta’s data also lags by a few days. We will update this report as soon as new data is available.

Topline Statistics

February 3rd - March 4th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €258,587 and ran 2753 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend
EKRE 35


1. Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond (€60,505)
2. Palle Kõlar (€2,072)
3. Elar Niglas (€1,800)

 333 €74,794
RE 47


1. Reformierakond Tallinnas (€13,700)
2. Eesti Reformierakond (€8,194)
3. Reformierakond Harjumaal (€4,688)

 715 €56,233
SDE 39


1. Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Erakond (€27,533)
2. Tartu ja Tartumaa sotsiaaldemokraadid (€4,006)
3. Jevgeni Ossinovski (€3,419)

 662 €52,050
I 33


1. Isamaa (€12,994)
2. Urmas Reinsalu (€4,041)
3. Riho Terras (€2,796)

 249 €33,748
E200 28


1. Eesti 200 (€13,057)
2. Eesti 200 Tartu (€3,322)
3. Jaak Laineste Eesti 200 (€3,044)

 434 €26,261
K 47


1. Jüri Ratas (€1,735)
2. Keskerakond (€1,279)
3. Priit Toobal (€1,189)

 360 €15,501

February 26th - March 4th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €100,104 and ran 1644 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

SDE

39


1. Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Erakond (€14,762)
2. Jevgeni Ossinovski (€1,334)
3. Tartu ja Tartumaa sotsiaaldemokraadid (€1,062)

412

€25,240

RE

40


1. Reformierakond Tallinnas (€5,914)
2. Kristina Šmigun-Vähi (€1,994)
3. Eesti Reformierakond (€1,518)

305

€20,523

EKRE

32


1. Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond (€12,353)
2. Elar Niglas (€1,200)
3. Palle Kõlar (€842)

220

€19,145

I

31


1. Isamaa (€4,962)
2. Urmas Reinsalu (€2,092)
3. Isamaa Tallinn (€905)

166

€14,598

E200

24


1. Eesti 200 (€6,667)
2. Jaak Laineste Eesti 200 (€1,491)
3. Eesti 200 Tartu (€1,238)

323

€12,967

K

45


1. Keskerakond (€837)
2. Priit Toobal (€737)
3. Jüri Ratas (€647)

218

€7,631

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

February 3rd - March 4th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 26th - March 4th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Targeted Audiences

Here, we show the top targeted audiences for each party (ranked by amount of Euro spend). Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

February 3rd - March 4th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 26th - March 4th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Contested Audiences

Here, we show the top most contested audiences, i.e. where all parties have spent considerable amounts of money competing to reach voters with the same interests. The amount on the right shows the total Euros spend on that specific target audience.

February 3rd - March 4th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 26th - March 4th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Age Targeting

February 3rd - March 4th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 26th - March 4th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

February 3rd - March 4th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 26th - March 4th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

February 3rd - March 4th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 26th - March 4th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

February 3rd - March 4th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 26th - March 4th 2023 (Last 7 days)